Wednesday, October 23, 2013

make cannons

Cannon

These superb cannon were created by snitchythedog using wire, beads
and wooden dowel. The cutting mat on which they are stand in the picture
has one inch grid squares so the cannon are perhaps a little on the
large side for 'standard' 28mm wargaming however with the use of smaller
diameter wire, beads and dowel...In the following article, snitchy explains how he made one of the cannon; however the same methods were used to make all three.

Materials:

3/8 inch hardwood dowel

1/4 inch hardwood dowel

Wood coffee stirrers

Wood popsicle sticks

Assorted beads

Poster paper

16 gauge wire

20 gauge wire

One straight pin

Matchsticks

Note that if you want to make a smaller cannon than the one illustrated you'll need smaller diameter dowels, wire and beads.

Barrel

I began by cutting the 3/8 dowel to the required length. A hole was
drilled in the center of each end and, using the pin, I stacked three
beads and glue it onto the end of the dowel.

A one inch wide strip of card was then cut and glued in place with the edge half way around the largest bead.
Wire was wrapped around an extra piece of dowel to make a coil which
was then cut into individual rings. These are used to hide the edges of
paper and add detail at the front of the barrel. Two different gauges of
wire were using as shown and all of the gaps were lined up on what will
become the underside of the cannon barrel i.e. where they will be
hidden from view.

Two 1/4 inch dowels were pinned into place for the arms of the
cannon. Putty was then applied to all gaps and sanded when dry. This
finished the barrel.

Caisson

I started the caisson with the wheels. I first found a hard round
form upon which I could use a clamp. I crimped three coffee stirrers for
each wheel and cut these to fit the form. The strips where then glued
together, staggering the openings, and clamped into place.

Note that the crimping process is simply a case of 'cutting' a series
of notches into what will become the inner part of the strip. The
notches are cut across the width of the strip, not along the length, and
each notch causes the strip to bend a little. As you work along it's
length, the strip curls. A special tool is available from the wooden
boat building section of model shops however you can achieve the same
effect with a craft knife; using a blade which is not particularly sharp
so as to avoid cutting right through the thin strip.
When the strips were dried, I cut and glued a center spoke made out
of a match stick. I then cut and added the rest of the spokes after
which putty was used to fill gaps prior to sanding all surfaces.

The construction of the rest of the caisson is pretty
straightforward. The various section were created by laminating several
popsicle sticks together, cutting them to shape, and sanding. I then
glued these sub-assemblies together before using more paper, wire and
putty to add the remaining details.
The platform on which the cannon stands is made from matchsticks with an edging made from coffee stirrers.

About Me

Trying compile all intersting terrain building and random interesting mods in one place for my ease of use and others. So very little of this are my original ideas, though I copied and pasted it all so the hyperlinks etc should take you there for more info.. etc...